Sunday, August 21, 2011

day 2

Today was our second full day in Kyoto. We were at least somewhat adjusted to the time today; I slept from 830 or so last night until 230.... thought I was up then, but somehow managed to sleep until 5 or 515. I made coffee (thank goodness we found coffee, ground, and a filter thingy to go on top of a cup). We puttered around and got out of the apartment around 9 or 10 to wander around in the pouring rain. We saw some temples and shrines (don't ask me which ones, all the syllables are sounding the same to me right now) and walked down a cool little canal and a cool little 400 year old street and then crashed until dinner. Then, we left the kiddos at the apartment to make our THIRD trip in THREE DAYS to Izumiya (departmnet store) and bought even MORE household items, and food (including 3 kinds of cereal, cream cheese for the bread, and ritz crackers as a special treat. Mia is basically starving to death but the rest of us are enjoying the cuisine).

and the view from where they are...
hey, behind them... its the DINING ROOM! (and further back you can see the "master suite" again)

The dining room must be close to the KITCHEN!

(Note, I know Mia is tall, but this is not one of those funhouse pictures where Mia is supposed to look like a giant. the fridge is shown to scale)

And finally, the crazy bathroom sink. This is a new one. The first time I turned it on, all of a sudden I am standing in a pool of water. Uh-Oh, I say. That can't be good. I look down, fearing the worst, only to discover that is a "feature" and not a "bug."

Yep. The sink drains to the floor. The entire bathroom is plastic and slopes to the drain there in the middle of the room. Its fun to brush teeth and shave. We need to get one of those wooden slatted door mats to stand on while doing those things.

And, thats all for now. I am going to bed. Supposedly I have my first day of work tomorrow, but I don't know how to make a phone call from our room (or if its possible) and I haven't gotten an email reply. Maybe tuesday...

As Art Campbell explained to me, it is the tradition in Japan to soap yourself up and rinse outside of the tub, then soak in the tub only after you are clean. I guess there have been a few cross-cultural incidents when visitors from Japan have stayed with US-based hosts who didn't anticipate this behavior with our whimpy US bathrooms...